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Viking pirates and Christian princes : dynasty, religion, and empire in the North Atlantic

"In popular imagination, the Vikings are remembered as fierce warrior seamen who campaigned through Western Europe, terrorizing British, Frankish, and Irish societies. Yet is it possible that the great Viking armies left more in their wake than carnage and destruction? The stories of two families - the Olafssons, who transformed a pirate camp in Ireland into the Kingdom of Dublin, and the Haraldssons, whose rule encompassed the Hebrides, Galloway, and the Isle of Man - suggest that the Vikings did indeed leave behind a much greater legacy." "Challenging traditional views of the Vikings' culture, Benjamin Hudson shows the role that these two great dynasties played in the Second Viking Age. The rise and transformation of the Olafssons and Haraldssons from the tenth to the twelfth centuries highlights a period and people important for understanding the political, religious, and cultural development of Europe in the High Middle Ages."--Jacket.Read more...

Two rivers and the origins of Olaf Cuaran --
Battle, marriage, and empire --
Pirate kings of the islands --
Sitric Silkenbeard --
From Dublin to England and Norway --
The brief ascendancey of the Haraldssons --
The contest for supremacy in the Irish Sea --
Lords of the isles.

Abstract:

This book studies two Viking families who appear in the records of the Atlantic littoral as pagan raiders and reinvent themselves as established Christian rulers. Their rise and transformation from the 10th to the 12th centuries highlights a period and people important for understanding the political, religious, and culture development of Europe in the High Middle Ages.Read more...

Reviews

Editorial reviews

Publisher Synopsis

[Hudson's] reassessment of Sitric Silkenbeard's achievement is particularly convincing and will need to be taken into account by all future students of King Cnut's confederation...This work offers new, well-signposted, approaches to the study of what Patrick Wormald termed 'the British archipelago'. Jonathan Shepard, Journal of Ecclesiastical HistoryRead more...

"Two rivers and the origins of Olaf Cuaran -- Battle, marriage, and empire -- Pirate kings of the islands -- Sitric Silkenbeard -- From Dublin to England and Norway -- The brief ascendancey of the Haraldssons -- The contest for supremacy in the Irish Sea -- Lords of the isles."@en

""In popular imagination, the Vikings are remembered as fierce warrior seamen who campaigned through Western Europe, terrorizing British, Frankish, and Irish societies. Yet is it possible that the great Viking armies left more in their wake than carnage and destruction? The stories of two families - the Olafssons, who transformed a pirate camp in Ireland into the Kingdom of Dublin, and the Haraldssons, whose rule encompassed the Hebrides, Galloway, and the Isle of Man - suggest that the Vikings did indeed leave behind a much greater legacy." "Challenging traditional views of the Vikings' culture, Benjamin Hudson shows the role that these two great dynasties played in the Second Viking Age. The rise and transformation of the Olafssons and Haraldssons from the tenth to the twelfth centuries highlights a period and people important for understanding the political, religious, and cultural development of Europe in the High Middle Ages."--Jacket."